Motion artifacts assessment and correction using optical tracking in synchrotron radiation breast CT

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Physics

Background:

• Synchrotron radiation breast CT (bCT) offers high spatial resolution but is susceptible to motion artifacts due to long scan times.
• Patient motion, particularly from breathing, can degrade image quality in bCT.
• Existing hospital-based scanners have shorter scan durations, mitigating motion issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess and compensate for motion artifacts in synchrotron radiation bCT.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of an optical tracking approach for motion correction.
• To determine the tolerance of bCT systems to uncorrected motion.

Main Methods:

• Assessed patient breathing motion in volunteers.
• Simulated motion during CT scans of phantoms and surgical specimens.
• Implemented a motion correction algorithm using optical tracking of fiducial marks.
• Quantitatively analyzed image quality using SSIM and nMSE.

Main Results:

• CT images reconstructed with optical tracking correction matched motionless reference images.
• The analysis showed that motion up to the system's point spread function (approx. 0.1 mm) could be tolerated without correction.
• Optical tracking effectively reduced motion artifacts.

Conclusions:

• A motion correction procedure using optical tracking is beneficial for synchrotron radiation bCT.
• This approach can maintain high image quality despite inherent motion challenges.
• Optical tracking offers a viable solution for improving bCT accuracy and reliability.